Guo Shao was halfway to Tokyo when he heard a report that a suspicious body had been found on the Ruzhou Road, and Wang Pu and others had taken the criminal Li Mazi to identify the body. Guo Shao immediately led his men to the place.
They rode fast horses and arrived earlier than Wang Pu and others. They saw a county magistrate in a green robe and a group of runners in the woods. Guo Shao rode his horse over and saw a pit in the woods. New soil had been dug out next to it, and a body covered in mud had been dug out and was placed on a bamboo frame.
Then I heard a farmer kneeling on the ground saying: I was delayed in the neighboring village and just returned home in the dark late last night. When I passed by here, I saw a light on the road and one of the lights was banging something.
You saw that person clearly.
The farmer said: "It's the middle of the night, how dare I go forward to see him? I hid in the bushes and didn't dare to come out, thinking that I would go home after he left. This morning, I thought something was wrong, so I went to the forest to see what was going on. I saw some newly dug soil in a place covered by branches. I wanted to know what was buried there, so I dug it up and found a dead person. I immediately went to the village to report it to the village elders.
Guo Shao looked at the bodies, ten strong men, with discolored skin and multiple injuries on their heads. The coroner was cleaning the coagulated blood and dirt on the heads. Because the farmer said he saw some movement on the road in the second half of the night, Guo Shao had to guess that this person might be Li Xiaer; but he didn't know Li Xiaer, so he had to wait for Wang Pu and others to bring Li Mazi up to identify the body.
In the evening, Wang Pu and others arrived and asked Li Mazi to identify the person, and it turned out to be Li Xiaer.
An official confirmed: This person is very important, you read it right
Li Mazi said: I have known him for a few months. He is not bad. Without looking at his face, I can recognize him about 70% just by looking at his back.
Wang Pudao took a look at the body and said: Collect it and transport it back to Kaifeng Prefecture for a detailed autopsy.
Seeing Guo Shao was also here, he walked over. Guo Shao did not shy away from it. He was the one being assassinated, so it was only natural for him to show some concern for the progress of the case. He immediately greeted Wang Pu.
Wang Pudao: It is obvious that he was killed to silence him.
Guo Shao bowed and said: "Vice Envoy Wang is right. I am afraid that is the case. However, I have observed carefully that the man's head is covered with scars and he seems to have been poisoned, but his face is not completely unrecognizable. After cleaning up, we can still see his face. It is just right to ask the painter to draw a portrait based on the corpse. It will be more like the body than listening to Li Mazi's oral description."
Wang Pu nodded in agreement.
Seeing that they could not get back to Tokyo tonight, they went to a nearby county town to stay overnight. The important witness Li Mazi would naturally be strictly guarded, and even Guo Shao sent some of his personal soldiers to take turns to set up sentry nearby.
Since the matter had been handed over to Wang Pu, and the various departments of Kaifeng Prefecture were handling it, Guo Shao could not intervene directly. After all, he was only a military officer of the imperial guards, and handling cases was not his job. Wang Pu was the deputy envoy of the Privy Council, and he did not handle cases either. However, because this matter involved a general, he was sent by the emperor to preside over the various departments.
Guo Shao had never been a policeman or a civil servant who solved cases in ancient times. But even so, as a man with no experience in handling cases, he felt that if they could investigate this case with all their strength, it would be a piece of cake. They could control and investigate the places where the deceased Li Xiaer was active and find out his interpersonal relationships. They also suspected that Li Xiaer often went in and out of the Zhao Mansion, so they used the servants in the Zhao Mansion to identify Li Xiaer's appearance. Even if they didn't recognize him, if Li Xiaer often went in and out of the Zhao Mansion, the servants would definitely know his name.
It can be basically determined that the main culprit in this case is Li Xiaer; then the relationship between Li Xiaer and Zhao San is clarified. Even if this case is not ironclad, Zhao San's dislike is obviously the greatest. It is a necessary measure to detain and interrogate the most suspicious suspect in ancient and modern times, and Zhao San may find it difficult to defend himself.
Zhao San might be able to argue that although Li Xiaer had a relationship with him, it could not prove that he, Zhao San, was the mastermind; but such excuses were useless. During the interrogation, they would definitely ask him where he was last night, what evidence of his alibi and other means he had. Guo Shao didn't know much about it, but he was sure that if things could get to this point, the truth of the case would not be far from being revealed.
Regardless of whether others believe it or not, Guo Shao is now certain that Zhao San is the mastermind. According to the motive for the crime, the only two people who could have gone to such great lengths to commit the crime are Li Chongjin and Zhao San. However, there is no credible clue that Li Chongjin is involved. On the contrary, there are countless clues related to Zhao San.
What the hell is there to say
But in some cases, the key is not how to investigate or whether you have the ability to investigate, but whether others allow you to investigate. In Zhao Kuangyin's house, unless the emperor approved, no one dared to search the house of the commander of the Palace Front Department to arrest people.
Zhao San returned to Tokyo alone. On his way home, he passed the intersection of Dongshibei Road and saw that the building run by Li Xiaer was full of officials. Zhao San did not dare to go closer to see what was going on, and hurried home.
When I returned home, I felt that everything was calm and peaceful, and it seemed that the incident had not yet affected the Zhao family.
But in the calm scene, Zhao San was also very worried and frightened, and his heart was extremely upset. When he walked to the hall of the inner courtyard, he suddenly saw He's spirit tablet on the table, and he was shocked again. This woman had a bad relationship with Zhao San when she was alive. At this time, Zhao San saw her token and felt a little scared. Zhao San hurriedly retreated from the gate again. He accidentally kicked the threshold and stumbled, almost falling.
The words on the spirit tablet seemed to have transformed into a human face, smiling at him coldly.
Zhao San hurriedly fled back to his own house in the front yard, thinking to himself: Let this matter pass quickly. I won’t dare to do it again. I was wrong.
Besides being terrified, he was also very angry, inexplicably angry. Later, he began to think about the cause and effect of the incident, and until he thought about being called to dinner in the evening, his heart was already turbulent, and a series of events had been repeated many times.
Zhao San slept very badly at night, feeling upset and worried.
In the morning, he did not go out, always feeling that home was safer. His second brother was so powerful, as long as he was under his second brother's aura, Zhao San would feel a little more at ease.
Just then, we heard the servant report: We caught a thief this morning. He stole food from the kitchen last night, but was dissatisfied with not stealing any money, so he hid in the woodshed and planned to steal a second time. Unexpectedly, he was caught red-handed.
Zhao San waved his hand and said: Why bother me with such matters
The servant said, "Alang and Erlang have both gone upstairs. We should ask them how to deal with the thief first. Otherwise, we should go and report to the old lady."
Don't bother my mother. Zhao San said, he suddenly turned around, the thief was hiding in the woodshed, and he didn't leave during the day. How did he get into the yard
The servant said: I don’t quite understand.
Come with me and take a look. Zhao San was the first to step out of the door. When the two of them reached the side yard, they saw two servants watching inside and outside the firewood room. When Zhao San walked into the firewood room, he saw an old man tied with hemp ropes to a bundle of firewood.
Zhao San took a look at him, waved his hand and ordered: Stand guard outside, I will interrogate him.
Yes. The servants obediently left the woodshed.
Zhao San asked: What is your name
The tied-up old man replied: My last name is Dong, and my name is Dong the bricklayer. I was so hungry that I came in to steal some food. I offended you. Please give me a good beating, and don't report it to the police. I won't dare to come again next time.
Zhao San frowned and suddenly said in a deep voice, "Do you know Guo Shao?"
The old man thought about it and nodded: I see that your family is also a family of officials, and Guo Shao is also an official. I used to be a servant in Guo’s house, but was driven out.
Zhao San's face turned colder, and he sneered: How did you get kicked out
The old man said embarrassedly: I also stole some money from his family. But Guo Shao was kind to others. He took in my daughter and gave me a lot of money. At first, I was thinking of using the money to do a small business and live a good life. But thinking that there was still a lot of money, I ate and drank a lot first, and saw the fair-skinned and tender women in the market, and spent some money. It is easy to spend money, but it is difficult to stop. In the end, I spent all my money and stopped. Alas.
Zhao San frowned and said nothing.
The old man said: I am telling the truth in every word. If you don’t believe me, send someone to Guo Shao’s house to ask.
Zhao San said coldly: What are you asking? Are you asking if you have stayed in Guo Shao's house, or if you were driven out by the master, or if your daughter is a slave in Guo's house
Bricklayer Dong looked confused and didn't seem to understand what Zhao San was talking about.
Zhao San was angry and afraid. He looked down and saw a ball of linen on the ground. He picked it up, pinched Dong the bricklayer's mouth, and stuffed the linen ball in. Then he held the ball of linen in Dong the bricklayer's mouth with one hand and pinched his nose with the other.
Dong the bricklayer immediately started struggling, but he couldn't move his body. His eyes widened and he kicked his legs desperately on the ground.
After a while, the old man stopped moving. When Zhao San looked at him, he saw that his eyes were wide open, but they were lifeless and discolored. This man's breathing was really strange. As soon as he died, his eyes were completely different.
Zhao San reached out his hand to wipe the eyelids, but his hand didn't reach the eyelids, and the eyes were still wide open.
He gave up, killing a few people didn't feel anything at all, but Zhao San felt that he seemed too cold-blooded, as if he was very experienced in killing people. He took the cloth out of Dong the bricklayer's mouth and threw it away, and saw the stolen wheat cakes and other food thrown next to it.
Zhao San immediately grabbed a few wheat cakes and a handful of pickled vegetables, walked up to Dong the tiler, and stuffed them into his gaping mouth, cursing, "I told you to steal, I told you to eat, eat as much as you can!"
After cursing for a while, he threw away the remaining food in his hand, turned around, opened the door and said: Bring some water, the thief is choking.
The servant came into the room and took a look, and said hurriedly: Oh no, he's dead.
Zhao San turned around in surprise, walked forward, put his hand in front of Dong the bricklayer's nose, and said in a daze: He really died and became a glutton.
The servant turned pale and asked: What should I do? Should I report to the police
Zhao San said: Why should we report a ragged thief to the authorities? We can just take him out of the city gate in a car and abandon him on the roadside.
Last night, I competed for the monthly ticket list for September and successfully entered the top three. There were many book friends who participated. This achievement was accumulated bit by bit. Thank you to the book friends who rewarded and voted last night.
I was too tired last night, so I can't burst out today, but I will keep updating three times a day until the weekend. I will try to update 4 chapters tomorrow. The average subscription is less than 2,000, which is not enough for the daily three updates I promised.
At the beginning of this month, the free monthly tickets were refreshed. Can you vote for Xifeng? Thank you all for your continued efforts. I can only try my best to write better.